A typical ultrasonic surgical device suitable for ophthalmic procedures consists of an ultrasonically driven handpiece, an attached hollow cutting tip, an irrigating sleeve and an electronic control console. The handpiece assembly is attached to the control console by an electric cable and flexible tubings. Through the electric cable, the console varies the power level transmitted by the handpiece to the attached cutting tip and the flexible tubings supply irrigation fluid to and draw aspiration fluid from the eye through the handpiece assembly.
The operative part of the handpiece is a centrally located, hollow resonating bar or horn directly attached to a set of piezoelectric crystals. The crystals supply the required ultrasonic vibration needed to drive both the horn and the attached cutting tip during phacoemulsification and are controlled by the console. The crystal/horn assembly is suspended within the hollow body or shell of the handpiece at its nodal points by relatively inflexible mountings. The handpiece body terminates in a reduced diameter portion or nosecone at the body's distal end. The nosecone is externally threaded to accept the irrigation sleeve. Likewise, the horn bore is internally threaded at its distal end to receive the external threads of the cutting tip. The irrigation sleeve also has an internally threaded bore that is screwed onto the external threads of the nosecone. The cutting tip is adjusted so that the tip projects only a predetermined amount past the open end of the irrigating sleeve. Ultrasonic handpieces and cutting tips are more fully described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,589,363; 4,223,676; 4,246,902; 4,493,694; 4,515,583; 4,589,415; 4,609,368; 4,869,715; and 4,922,902, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
When used to perform phacoemulsification, the ends of the cutting tip and irrigating sleeve are inserted into a small incision of predetermined width in the cornea, sclera, or other location in the eye tissue in order to gain access to the anterior chamber of the eye. The cutting tip is ultrasonically vibrated along its longitudinal axis within the irrigating sleeve by the crystal-driven ultrasonic horn, thereby emulsifying upon contact the selected tissue in situ. The hollow bore of the cutting tip communicates with the bore in the horn that in turn communicates with the aspiration line from the handpiece to the console. A reduced pressure or vacuum source in the console draws or aspirates the emulsified tissue from the eye through the open end of the cutting tip, the bore of the cutting tip, the horn bore, and the aspiration line and into a collection device. The aspiration of emulsified tissue is aided by a saline flushing solution or irrigant that is injected into the surgical site through the small annular gap between the inside surface of the irrigating sleeve and the outside surface of the cutting tip.
There have been prior attempts to combine ultrasonic longitudinal motion of the cutting tip with rotational motion of the tip, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,222,959 (Anis), 5,722,945 (Anis, et al.) and 4,504,264 (Kelman), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. These prior attempts have used electric motors to provide the rotation of the tip which require O-ring or other seals that can fail in addition to the added complexity and possible failure of the motors.
There have also been prior attempts to generate both longitudinal and torsional motion without the use of electric motors. For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,028,387, 6,077,285 and 6,402,769 (Boukhny), one of the inventors of the current invention, describes a handpiece having two pairs of piezoelectric crystals are used. One pair is polarized to product longitudinal motion. The other pair is polarized to produce torsional motion. Two separate drive signals are used to drive the two pairs of crystals. In actual practice, making a handpiece using two pairs of crystals resonate in both longitudinal and torsional directions is difficult to achieve. One possible solution, also described by one of the current inventors, is described in U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2001/0011176 A1 (Boukhny). This reference discloses a handpiece have a single set of piezoelectric crystals that produces longitudinal motion, and a series of diagonal slits on the handpiece horn or tip that produce torsional motion when the horn or tip is driven at the resonate frequency of the piezoelectric crystals. Again, in practice, the resonate frequency of the piezoelectric crystals and the tip or horn did not coincide, so simultaneous longitudinal and torsional motion was difficult to achieve.
Accordingly, a need continues to exist for a reliable ultrasonic handpiece that will vibrate both longitudinally and torsionally, either simultaneously or separately.